Skip to main content

Review: The Smoke Hunter: A gripping adventure thriller

The Smoke Hunter: A gripping adventure thriller with a suffragette heroine The Smoke Hunter: A gripping adventure thriller with a suffragette heroine by Jacquelyn Benson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was kindly given this book for a free and honest review from Headline publishing and is due for release on 3rd November 2015.

The beginning of this book starts in 1632 in the Cayo District of New Spain and introduces us to a monk there to convert the local tribal population to Catholicism. During his time there he is distracted by a myth of great interest a possible link to the long lost location of El Dorado.

Picking up from this in 1882 London we meet Eleanora (Ellie) Mallory who works as part of the civil service as an archivist and also an activist in the suffragette movement. Whilst she is waiting to speak to her boss she locates, a book amongst his papers with a mysterious pendant and a map and upon conclusion of their meeting decides he is unaware of its importance and decides to steal it away when she clears her desk.

This causes a chain of events whereby she is being chased by two ominous figures in a Professor of St Andrews with a dark past and his henchman for a mysterious client seeking a powerful symbol from the past.

Ellie is a little green as an archaeologist and finds herself whisked away under an assumed name to a hotel in British Honduras in the hopes of finding somebody to take her into the surrounding Jungle. But after several encounters with Adam Bates and the bad guys hot on her heals for the treasure, she convinces him to assist her on her expedition. Adam is keen to protect the site for its historical significance as the trail could lead to a yet to be unidentified people that precede even the Mayan's and Aztec peoples of this region.

The relationship between Ellie and Adam is very naive from Ellie's standpoint and yet charismatic and reminded me a lot of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc or the 1984 classic Romancing the Stone.

This book takes you on the twists and turns of the expedition and without giving away too much in the way of spoilers, grips you with a fast pacing plot to the end, where I was left wanting more.

I really liked the fact that there was a female protagonist as usually they play second fiddle to the male character, but Ellie was portrayed as determined and willing to try new things and use her initiative to problem solve.

I have a feeling this could be developing into a series based on the way the book was concluded and would be interested to see where life will take her next.

With this in mind I have given this 4 stars.


View all my reviews
Labels:
Location: Buntingford SG9 9FJ, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: the darkness

the darkness by Ragnar Jónasson My rating: 4 of 5 stars Firstly I would like to thank Michael Joseph for the opportunity to give a true and honest review of this book. This is my first experience of a Nordic Noir Thriller and I have to say I am so glad I started with Ragnar Jonasson. He is a well-respected author from Reykjavik and began his career at the age of 17 translating the works of Agatha Christie into Icelandic. This particular novel was the runner-up of the Novel of the Year Award 2015 in Iceland. This is a start of a new trilogy based around Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir a member of the Reykjavik police force who is being forced into early retirement by her commanding officer. Hulda uses this conversation to utilise her final days investigating the cold case of a young female asylum seeker found dead in the remote countryside. Her death was ruled as a suicide after a short investigation, but it soon becomes clear to Hulda that there is a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Loving Husband by Christobel Kent

The book starts by introducing Fran Hall and her husband Nathan who have moved to a rural farmhouse to bring up their two children Emme and Ben.   At the opening of this book Fran is awoken by Ben only to find Nathan gone from their bed.  After searching the house she moves outside and discovers his body. After reporting the situation to the police Fran finds herself under suspicion  and we begin to see a side of Fran's past that she may be running away from.  As well as a darker side to her husband Nathan's life that remains unrevealed. Unfortunately I was unable to finish this book.  I read 54% before I just had to surrender. I love a good psychological thriller and have read a few good thrillers this year, so when I saw the synopsis for the story of The Loving Husband, it looked like a compelling fast paced read. Unfortunately I should have followed my gut after the first few chapters.  Straight from the off I found it very hard to associ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko

The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott Stambach My Rating: 4 stars ** Please note that the Arc copy of this book was received through NetGalley for a true and honest review ** This book is written in the first person in regard to a 17 year old boy called Ivan who has grown up in an asylum for gravely ill children, it is implied that he and his fellow residents are all suffering from the after effects of Chernobyl which took place in 1986 and continued to effect this and near by villages with Radiation poisoning as this went into food and water supplies in that area. The catastrophic impact of this event although not eagerly confirmed by the Russian government is that there was an increase in both deformities, health issues and cancer in the people residing near this event. I would have liked this to have been fleshed out at the beginning of the book to give some explanation to those who may not be aware of this event (as I believe this is meant for a YA audience...
Post a Comment
Read more